Steel And Poppies

Emergency Meeting

Shannon had handed Tom a glass of water after leading him to the sofa in the living room. He hardly could hold the glass, but managed to take a few sips. And then he told Shannon what had happened.

“Have you seen them?” Shannon asked.

“Not directly, I only saw their legs. One of them wore snake-skin boots.”

“Those two cowboys who arrived a bit earlier!” Shannon stated.

Tom nodded. He had been thinking the same.

Shannon got out her phone. “I’m calling Rhydian! We need to go after them!” She started dialing.

“No!” Tom interrupted. “Call Maddy’s parents first! We can’t handle this on our own! Not this time! These guys are dangerous!”

Shannon hung up, then speed dialed Maddy’s house. She let it ring a few times. “They’re not home!”

She redialled Rhydian’s number. “Rhydian? It’s Shannon. You need to come here! Someone kidnapped Maddy!” She paused. “Yes. And Tom has been hurt! OK, thanks!”

She turned towards Tom. “They’ll be here in a minute!”

The door opened, and Shannon’s mum entered. “Tom? Oh my God, what happened to you dear?” She rushed to him.

“I got tasered.” Tom explained.

Mrs. Kelly was shocked. “Who did this?”

Tom started to explain, but Shannon shook her head. “We don’t now mum!” She interrupted Tom.

“No, Shannon, not this time! We really need some grown-up help! This is too big to handle alone!”

And to Mrs. Kelly: “The guys who shot me took Maddy!”

Mrs. Kelly was stunned. “You mean as in kidnapped?”

Tom nodded. “I’m calling the police!” Mrs. Kelly left the room to get to the phone.

“Oh, great!” Shannon glared at Tom. “What did you do that for? Police sneaking ’round Maddy’s life is the last thing she needs. They’re gonna find out!”

“Shannon, you didn’t see these guys. They are serious business. They’re not like Whitewood. We can outwit her, if we’re clever, because she’s interested in science, but she doesn’t actually want to hurt the wolfbloods. These guys are pros. From the way they pulled this off, I’d say it wasn’t the first time, they snatched someone from the streets. We need help with this!”

Shannon sighed. “I just don’t want to expose Maddy and her family!”

Tom nodded. “I know. Can you try Maddy’s parents again?”

Shannon took her mobile and redialled the Smith’s number.

“Still nothing.”

“We need to find out were they took Maddy.”

Shannon thought for a moment. “That Logan girl? Maddy spent a lot of time with her lately, and she knows about the wolfbloods. Maybe she’s got something to do with it?”

Shannon grabbed her coat. “Tom, you fill in the others. I’m trying to find that Logan! If we’re lucky, she leads us to Maddy!”

Tom tried to get up, but fell back to the sofa, groaning in pain. “Shannon, wait, what you’re gonna do? Ask her nicely?”

Shannon shrugged. “Maybe I’ll ask not so nicely.”

“Shannon, that girl has frikking metal claws growing form her hands. She’s dangerous!”

“Relax, I’m just gonna see where she is, and follow her in a safe distance.”

Shannon had stopped at the school to grab her camera, before she headed into the forest. She knew that Logan had a sort-of-office in a small shed in the forest, and she assumed, if the girl had something to do with Maddy’s disappearance, she would return there, in order not to raise any suspicion. It was a long shot, but the only starting point Shannon had. Other than Maddy, she didn’t even know where the girl lived. It turned out she was lucky. Logan was standing in front of her shed, in a heated debate with a guy Shannon knew worked for some sawmill somewhere in the Hexham area. Although the whole area was a national park, there was still forestry going on, but it was under strict regulations. Part of what the forest commission Logan worked for did, was seeing that these regulations where met. Shannon got closer, so she could overhear the conversation.

“We had a guarantee to cut down five-thousand there!” The man just said.

“Yup, that was before last years storm season flattened half the forest. If we let you cut down another five thousand trees, there’ll be nothing left.”

“My boss won’t like that! We will bring that before the forestry commission. See how long you keep your job then!” The man trotted off to his car.

“A good day to you too, sir!” Logan yelled after him, and then added, quietly: “What an arsehole!”

She went into her office shed, just to come out again, a few minutes later, with a woollen cap on her head, locked the door, and walked away.

Shannon dove into the undergrowth and tried to be as quiet as possible, as the girl passed by her hiding place. When the girl was a little distance away, Shannon started to follow her. It came in handy, that she knew these forests so well, it made it possible to get from one hiding place to another.

A few times, Logan stopped and listened, and once or twice, it looked as if she was sniffing, just the way Maddy did, when she picked up a scent.

“Oh my God,” Shannon thought. “I hope she’s not a wolfblood herself.”

In that case, she would already have detected Shannon’s presence, which she clearly hadn’t, or at least Shannon thought so.

When she squezzed through some bushes, the camera’s strap got entangled in the twigs, forcing her to stop. Once she had freed herself from the bush Logan was gone!

“Shit!” She murmured, and stepped onto the path, trying to spot where the older girl had turned to. Logan had been headed towards Stoneybridge, so Shannon ran a few yards in that direction. Then, suddenly, she felt a shudder, and looked over her shoulder.

Logan stood in the middle of the path.

“And you were following me, because…?” She asked.

Shannon stumbled backwards. “Er, I…I wasn’t following you!” She stammered.

“You’ve already been lurking in the bushes when I left my office.” Logan seemed more amused than threatened.

Shannon took a deep breath. This was the worst place to face Logan. She surly wasn’t fast enough to outrun the athletic girl. Logan was quite a bit taller than her, and mostly muscle. Shannon decided to go into offence. “I followed you, because I hoped you’ll lead me to Maddy. Where is she?” She asked in her best Barnaby impression.

Logan seemed genuinely confused. “How should I know?”

“You spent an awful lot of time with her lately!”

“Well, yeah, she came over to see me.”

“And she told you that she’s a wolfblood?”

“Yes. But, well, after she came to me to speak for her friend Jana, it wasn’t really hard to figure out anyway. And yes, she knows about my claws. What’s your point?”

“So you gained her trust, so you could more easily kidnap her!”

“What?” Now Logan’s cool attitude broke, and there was real concern in her voice. “What happened? Who kidnapped her?”

“Your two fellow Americans did the job. They fired a taser gun at her and Tom on her way home from school. And know you are on your way to meet them, aren’t you?”

Logan sighed. “And why would I do that?”

“I don’t know, to sell her to some government lab? You tell me!”

Logan took a step towards Shannon. “OK, Sherlock. First, why would I gain her trust, just to have her assaulted in the streets, if I could just invite her to my car and drive off? Second, you don’t know me, but if you did, you’d know that I would rather tare the world apart than letting an innocent girl fall into the hands of a government lab. And third, if you are talking about these two cowboy clowns, who arrived the other day: They are not my fellow Americans, because I’m Canadian. Clear?”

Shannon’s heart raced. “Yes, clear.”

Logan stepped back. “OK. Why don’t you tell me everything you know about what happened to Maddy?”

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